Participation in student health management: promoting factors and barriers of student codetermination

Background. For a successful student health management (SHM) the participation of students is crucial. The benefits of participation have been proven and various participation options in SHM have already been tested. Nevertheless, it is difficult to attract students for participation. To counteract this, the aim of the following work is to identify promoting factors and barriers of student participation in SHM and derive initial recommendations for action. Methods. Since the state of research regarding the above-mentioned question is very limited, a qualitative, explorative approach was chosen. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with students of the University of Applied Sciences Kempten. The evaluationwas carried out according to the qualitative content analysis by Kuckartz. Results. The students reported a wide range of promoting as well as inhibiting factors, which can be divided into person-related and situation-related. The personal-related factors include the individual, social as well as study- and occupation-related influences. Relationship-related factors identified were embedding of participation, type of project and collaboration, awareness of and access to SHM, the course of the studies and incentives. Conclusion. Based on the interviews, specific factors influencing student participation at Kempten University of Applied Sciences could be identified. These form important starting points for the successful participation of students in student health management and can thus contribute to the sustainable promotion of student health in the long term.